1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable apparatuses with a digital communication mode including cellular phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), HHPs (Hand Held Phones), game phones, TV phones, chatting phones, and camera phones, and more particularly to a portable apparatus combining a sliding motion with a folding motion.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, “portable communication apparatus” refers to an electronic apparatus that a user can carry to perform wireless communication. To facilitate portability, designs of such portable communication apparatuses tend to be compact, slim, and light, and are moving toward providing multimedia availability, with a wider variety of functions. In particular, future portable communication apparatuses will incorporate greater multi-functionality and be capable of multi-purpose utilization, in addition to being even more compact and light. Future designs will also incorporate the ability for modification to be suitable for various multimedia or Internet environments. Portable communication apparatuses are now commonly used by people of all ages and all walks of life throughout the world, and are recognized by most consumers as a nearly indispensable commodity to be carried all the time.
Conventional portable communication apparatuses may be classified into various categories according to appearance, such as a bar-type portable communication apparatus, a flip-type portable communication apparatus, and a folder-type portable communication apparatus. Portable communication apparatuses may also be classified as neck wearable or wrist wearable according to the position or way in which a user wears the portable communication apparatus. In addition, portable communication apparatuses may be classified into a rotation-type portable communication apparatus and a sliding-type portable communication apparatus according to the manner of opening and closing the portable communication apparatus. These variously classified portable communication apparatuses can be easily understood by those skilled in the art.
Conventional portable communication apparatuses can now transmit data wirelessly at a high speed in addition to performing basic voice communication function in response to consumers' demand.
Recent trends in portable communication apparatus design tend to include a camera lens to obtain video signals for transmission. Current portable communication apparatuses have an external or embedded camera lens module that enables a user to perform video communication with a desired partner or to photograph a desired subject.
However, sliding-type or folding-type conventional portable communication apparatuses have a problem in that, although they necessarily have a display device and a number of keys, the display device is difficult to watch while the apparatus is horizontal, and the keys are inconvenient to operate.
In a multimedia-oriented environment accommodating various consumer-friendly media, for example, a single portable apparatus is expected to incorporate not only a voice communication function, but also video communication, game, music listening, TV or video watching, chatting, and Internet functions as a whole. As a result of such change in telecommunication environments, it is desirable to actively cope with various user interfacing environments. In consideration of usability of portable apparatuses, the user interfacing environments dictate the convenience of portable apparatuses.
In the user interface environment of a single portable apparatus, therefore, the most critical factor is the convenience in the data input and output interfacing environments. The present invention provides the optimum interfacing environment from the viewpoint of users, in consideration of the advantages of sliding-type and folding-type portable apparatuses.